Victorian farmers welcome rain ahead of expected dry summer

Farmers in regional Victoria welcome rain ahead of expected dry summer In short: Farmers across regional Victoria are welcoming recent rain, hoping it will set up a bumper crop ahead of an expected dry summer. Waterlogged paddocks are causing concern for some growers who are still unable to access their crops following recent flooding. What's next? Growers say that expensive aerial spraying to control plant disease may be their only option if the ground does not dry out soon. As some sunshine and clear skies begin to emerge across Victoria, many farmers across the state are both rejoicing and ruing recent heavy rainfall. Some growers in western Victoria have lost up to 15 per cent of their crops, while others have turned to drones to spray crops in inaccessible paddocks after up to 150 millimetres of rain fell across the state and caused flooding last week. But despite the wet conditions, spirits remain high, with the critical spring months ahead and the forecast El Niño weather pattern in spring and summer predicted to be one of the strongest on record. Broadacre cropping farmer Russell Hocking has lost about 15 per cent of his crop to flooding. He predicted he could lose a further 10 per cent of his crop, which is visibly waterlogged, if the paddocks do not dry up soon. Operating across two properties at Prairie, north of Bendigo, and Werrimull, west of Mildura, Mr Hocking said he had experienced the good and the bad of the recent rain. "The whole Mallee looks excellent, but our farm at Prairie is extremely wet," he said. "The barley's pretty sick, lentils are very sick, the wheat and oats look okay. "We're just sneaking by at the minute, but we're hopeful of a sunny, dry couple of weeks ahead." Both properties have already exceeded their average annual rainfall, with the Prairie farm getting 410mm so far this year, and Werrimull receiving 348mm. Both properties headed into sowing with more than 200mm of rain for the year. By July, the conditions at Prairie had taken a turn for the worse. A four-day deluge dumped 80mm on the property at the end of June and start of July and resulted in widespread flooding of low-lying crops. In the past week, Prairie has received close to 40mm, while the farm at Werrimull had 25-30mm in the same rain event. However, Mr Hocking said he was "still quite positive" about the season, with a full profile of moisture heading into spring. "The farm at Werrimull, I'd say barring a frost, it's hard to see things not being average, above or even well above average," Mr Hocking said. Wet paddocks force aerial spraying Agronomise farm consultant Simon Craig said the wet conditions had increased disease pressure, and a heightened demand for fungicide was resulting in supply shortages. "Certainly, the rain has increased demand, and growers are probably going to have to be a little bit more open to looking at different chemical products," Mr Craig said. He said the lack of availability was forcing growers to "think outside the box" to stay on top of disease. He said growers needed to act now. "A lot of the fungicide products we require in those crop types are protectants, so they've got to be applied before the disease appears in the crop," he said. Mr Craig said growers had to find a way to spray their paddocks or risk serious yield losses. "There's a few other options now than what there was many years ago, like drone and helicopter spraying," he said. Price-wise, Mr Craig said aerial spraying was more than double the cost of tractor spraying. "You're looking at probably $8-$10 a hectare doing a contractor boom spray," he said. "However, with a plane, you're probably looking anywhere between $24-$26 a hectare." On the waiting list South-west Victorian dairy farmer Craig Dwyer said he was on the waiting list for aerial spraying on his property at Bullaharre. "We've had to get ourselves in the queue for the chopper, which I think is arriving midweek to put out our next batch of fertiliser," Mr Dwyer said. "It's just too wet to traffic paddocks at the moment." Mr Dwyer said the property had almost reached its threshold for water, but after two years of drought, all rain was welcome. "I don't think you'll ever hear me say the words, 'It's far too wet,'" he said. 'The dams are full' In north-east Victoria, Lima East cattle farmer Damien Gerrans received just under 100mm last weekend. "The dams are full and the creeks have burst their banks," Mr Gerrans said. "It's the biggest rain event we've had in a while but the season has been great so far. "We're still watching the long-range forecast for an early and dry summer, but this sets us up well. The rain has flooded Mr Gerrans's low-lying country, and he has had to move his herd to higher ground. "If they were still down on the flats they would be knee deep [in water]."